This week, without warning, the Greek government shut down its state-run television broadcaster, ERT. The television anchor registered his outrage even as police rushed to end what would be ERT’s final broadcast.

The television anchor’s last words were flustered.

“The riot police are moving toward the transmitters to switch them off…. This is official information we have,” were the final words he uttered near midnight Tuesday.

Then the screen at Greek public broadcaster ERT went black.

The scene came just five hours after the government’s abrupt announcement that it was shutting down ERT immediately as part of cost-cutting measures.

The dramatic shutdown of ERT is the first in a series of impending closures of more public institutions, which will leave more than 2,000 public employees without jobs (ERT alone employed 2,565) by the end of the year, and 15,000 by the end of 2014.

The closure of ERT and other Greek public institutions will not only increase the likelihood of the country’s unemployment rate going up, as former civil servants join the ranks of the unemployed. It will also add to the misery of the Greek tragedy that is austerity, as the closures and layoffs mean more Greek citizens will suffer the lack of services those public institutions and public employees have provided.

For all the misery it cause, austerity didn’t reduce Greece’s deficit. The latest round of bone-deep cuts, indicates that austerity still hasn’t made a dent in Greece’s deficit. Yet the Greek government has prescribed more pain, because that’s precisely what it was put in place to do by the financial elites who’ve called the shots since exercising veto power against Greek democracy.

Despite overwhelming evidence, politicians and economists alike are still convinced that austerity works. Historical examples like the austerity policies put in place before Roosevelt’s famous New Deal leave little doubt that “expansionary contraction” is not beneficial during economic downturns. Even so-called austerity success stories with supposed applicability to the eurozone have been called into question: Australia and Denmark, regarded as model austerity countries, fell into crises after two years of implementing austerity policies. The only real success stories of reductions in debt have not been during downturns, but during periods of economic growth. The United States, for example, succeeded in reducing the deficit significantly under Bill Clinton, and Sweden reduced its fiscal deficit from 1994-1998 during a period of rapid GDP growth.

The bottom line is simple: none of what is going on in Europe after adopting austerity policies should be a surprise. It is just inexplicable that we have to keep reinventing the wheel and rediscovering the adverse effects of austerity in a struggle to recover from a crisis. Why can’t we tell austerity (in the words of Kelis), “might trick me once, I won’t let you trick me twice”?

Greece has seen such protests against austerity before, as has the rest of Europe, and governments have responded with indifference — and more austerity.

Will this time be different? Or will Greece continue its slow fade to black under austerity.

About Terrance Heath

Terrance Heath is the Online Producer at Campaign for America's Future. He has consulted on blogging and social media consultant for a number of organizations and agencies. He is a prominent activist on LGBT and HIV/AIDS issues.